The Osceola times., 1887-01-22
FEED THE SOIL.
Agricultural Success Dependent on the Usl
of ofFertilixers and Thorough Cultivation.

N"oiO - ho oaouor siSnt III any larin-
ing country than a tract of land from
which the original supply of plant food
has been drawn year after year until
nothing is left to feed a growing crop.
Though l have seen this picture more
frequently displayed in more striking
colors in the Southern than in the
Northern States, yet we see altogether
too much of it here. 1t seems to me
that in land flooded with agricultural
books and papers the farmers ought to
be educated up to a point where they
would steer clear of this visible rock
upon which so many 60 down to finan-
cial ruin. There appears to be some
men who will not learn even in tho Sc
verest school of experience. They 90
on year after year robbing themselves
OF their patrimony, their crops gradu-
ally becoming smaller and smaller.
thelr ability to correct their own error
weaker ana Weaker, until at last the
Ia.li nour arrives and they are ruined.
1 nave personal knowledge of several
o'iS ,es of this kind. The farms originally
yielded sufficient income to support
the families of the owners. They raised
considerable grain, pretty fair crops of
potatoes, etc, and never kepi enough
stock TO make manure to apply to one
half the cultivated land. The crops be-
gan to show the effects of starvation
and debts began to accumulate. Each
year rendered the situation worse in
stead of better, mortgage followed
mortgage, and the end can always
be predicted to a certainty. Who would
think of pursuing this course in any
other branch of businessP If farmer
puts thousand dollars in the bank on
deposit without interest and draws out
a hundred every year, he is able to see
what the result will be. If merchant
invests his whole capital in a stock of
goods, and spends every dollar he re-
ceives for sales, he is able to see that
the time will arrive when he will have
nothing more to sell, but when it comes
to the matter of taking the plant food
out of the soil, it is different. There
are some who even stand up and argue
that you can milk this sort of COW
day after day, week after week and
month after month, feed her moth
ing, and she will grow fat and
sleek and increase in the yield of milk.
There is some "hocus-pocus," SONS un-
known mysterious agency by which
the elements of fertility taken cut of
the soil are restored. Now and then a
farmer of more than average ability
puts off the time of final settlement
beyond the generally allotted period.
They raise considerable clover that
reaches way down and brings up the
elements of plant food from a depth to
which the feeders of grain and vege-
table have never penetrated. They
run the cultivator, the roller, the har-
row and clod-crusher with unfagging
zeal, reducing every little clod
and lump, they sow rye, etc.. in
the fall and set it to gathering
up the fertility and holding for
the next seasons crop of potatoes or
other vegetables. How frail the fouda-
ton upon which they build! Point out
to them their error and they are driven
to the corner where all they can say is
behold! There are twenty bushels
of wheat and two hundred bushels of
potatoes! Does that look like the pro-
duct of poverty-stricken soil? Ten
years ago the same land yielded smaller
crops. 1t has been going on increasing
in its yield year after year, and now
here | stand head and shoulders above
my neighbors. But, my dear sir, are
your smoothing harrow, your Acme
pulverizer, your roller and all those
other machines and implements with
which you have been grinding the little
particles of your soil finer and finer,
ten years oldP Did you ten years ago
make practice of using clover, rye,
etc, to gather together and leave at the
surface where needed the food neces-
sary to support your potatoes and
wheatP You have taken out tons and tons
of fphosphoric acid. nitrogen and potash.
What means have you employed to pay
back this enormous drain upon the natu-
raj resources Of your farmers bank
the soilP Does the field of green rye abb
sorb and hold any appreciable amount
of the free nitrogen of the atmos-
! pherep Science says not. Do the phos-
phoric acid and potash that you are
every year carting away to market
come to you again in the mists and
rain from the clouds above? No man
attempts to so argue. Can you take
something from what you have and not
reduce the original store? If you now
make careful analysis of your soil
and then take from it half dozen
crops of wheat and potatoes, will il
still contain the same amount
of plant food as before the
crops were grownp What do the long
series of experiments of sowing wheat
after wheat, barley after barley, ETC.,
during long term of years teachF
Can you anywhere in the teachings OF
Johnston, Boussingault, Liebig, Vile
or any of the great masters of the
science of agricultural chemistry find
authority and support for the theory that
the soil is a sort of perpetual motion
machine, awell with ineXhaustible fount,
widows cruise of oil' that wasteth
notp suppose you will say, "I will
keep the clover at work pumping up
from below" Yes, but what will you